Project Highlights: Land area 563 square km, adjacent to Shat Al Arab, shares boarders with Iran and is a service center to oil fields, mainly the biggest oil field “Majnoon”.
Main Tasks: social study and identification of community needs, prioritization of initiatives, cost benefit analysis.
Al Nashwa sub-district is a rural style area with several villages. It used to have one of the most unique species of palm trees pre the war. Majority of community members are humbly educated and skilled as farmers. The exploration of oil at Majnoon field affected the area and its community negatively due to increased pollution and lack of employment opportunities that match locals’ set of competencies.
The project team led by Dr. Rana El-Akhal implemented a thorough field survey segmented by age group, gender and residence area. Combined with KIIs and focus groups with community leaders and
influencers to identify priority needs. The list of needs was them assessed based on weighed criteria prioritization model to identify top ranked interventions. This process was followed by cost/benefit
analysis and presented to Oil Steering Committee represented by Shell company who in their turn adopted the implementation of identified top priority interventions.
